Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.

- Advertisement -

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

- Advertisement -

They say unto him, We are able.

And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

- Advertisement -

If you wish to be great in the kingdom of God, you must make yourself small here. If you wish to be great in the Kingdom of God, you must learn to minister to the needs of others. If you wish to rule over others, you must learn to serve others.

If you see that someone has a problem and you won’t even bother to TRY to help, why should they have confidence in you to lead them? If you’ve never served anyone, how will you know how to properly be served? How will they trust you to know when to reward or punish them if you don’t understand what they are doing?

If you put someone in charge of an operating petroleum unit and they don’t understand the operations, the dangers, the problems, the workload, the stress level, etc, they are more likely to cause an explosion than increase productivity. They can order an operator to turn the wrong valve, they can order an operator into an area with a leaking valve, they can disregard a problem with a control valve, they can reduce the workforce below the level where the operators can safely handle a problem situation, and they can require too much of an operator during a stressful situation.